‘Not appropriate to comment’ on redacted messages as Pritam’s trial ongoing: Office of the Clerk of Parliament

The Office of the Clerk of Parliament has declined to comment at this juncture on redacted chat messages relating to former Workers' Party (WP) Member of Parliament (MP) Raeesah Khan's case, citing the ongoing trial.

WP secretary-general Pritam Singh is currently on trial after he was charged with two counts of lying to Parliament.

In response to Mothership's queries, the Office of the Clerk of Parliament said on Oct. 21 that "it will not be appropriate to comment on a matter arising from Singh's trial" while it is ongoing.

This was in response to queries on the procedures for submitting evidence to the Committee of Privileges (COP), or whether action will be taken against ex-WP member Loh Pei Ying.

Last week, while testifying for the prosecution, Loh had admitted in court to lying about the reason for redacting a text message in documents submitted to the COP formed to look into Raeesah’s case.

The Office of the Clerk of Parliament also declined to comment at this juncture on ex-WP member Yudhishthra Nathan’s testimony that People's Action Party (PAP) MP Rahayu Mahzam (a COP member), along with Parliament staff, went through the submission of evidence to the Committee of Privileges (COP) together with him, before eventually leaving him to redact messages on his own.

Redacted messages

On the redactions, Loh said that each one had to be approved, and that she had lied to the COP about the reasons for redacting one message in particular.

This referred to a text message from Nathan which suggested that Raeesah should "not give too many details".

Loh said she redacted the message as she was worried the documents would be available publicly and that Nathan would be attacked for his comment.

She added that Rahayu was involved in reviewing all her messages "that were relevant to the COP" and agreed on what could and could not be redacted.

However, the redaction of Nathan’s message about not giving “too many details” was done on her own, and not one of the messages approved to he redacted by Rahayu, she said.

On Oct. 18, Nathan said he had redacted some of the text messages from chat records that were submitted to the COP on his own and that these redactions were not approved by anyone.

Singaporean economist Donald Low had shared a Facebook post on Oct. 18 about the trial, saying that the COP appeared to have "got it wrong", and mentioned "a PAP MP" who he later identified as Rahayu.

Rahayu subsequently said that she was seeking legal advice and intended to "take action" against him for the post, which contained a "wholly untrue" allegation.

Low has since taken down his post and apologised.

The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) said in an Oct. 19 statement that Low's post was "in contempt of court" and confirmed that he had taken down it at their request.

It added that it was "considering whether further action is necessary".

Top photos by Amber Tay & Mothership